Recently, an image processing apparatus that detects a solid object (three-dimensional object) using a stereo camera is used.
The image processing apparatus is used in applications for a monitoring system for detecting invasion of suspicious persons and other abnormalities and an in-vehicle system for supporting safe driving of a vehicle.
In an in-vehicle environment, to satisfy requirements of applications for detecting surrounding vehicles, pedestrians, and objects, for example, it is necessary to previously find a method of realizing object detection and distance measurement and safely steering a vehicle.
As conventional technology of this kind of image processing apparatus, PTL 1 discloses a vehicle rear-side monitoring apparatus that includes an imaging unit mounted on a vehicle, imaging a road on the rear side of the vehicle, and obtaining a road image at every constant time; and a detection unit processing the road image obtained by the imaging unit and detecting other following vehicle, wherein the imaging unit is composed of a wide-angle high resolution camera, the detection unit has a first image processing unit for processing the entire road image obtained by the imaging unit by thinning image information; a second image processing unit for processing a partial region of the road image obtained by the imaging unit without thinning the image information; and a selection unit for selecting one of the first image processing unit and the second image processing unit, according to a traffic situation where other following vehicle is detected, and the vehicle rear-side monitoring apparatus monitors a relative relation between other following vehicle detected by the detection unit and an own vehicle. According to the vehicle rear-side monitoring apparatus disclosed in PTL 1, a wide range from the near side to the far side can be monitored in a preferable state. As a result, it is possible to precisely monitor other following vehicle.